


The Adem and the Amyr

by Teccams_Socks



Category: Kingkiller Chronicles - Patrick Rothfuss
Genre: Adem, Amyr, Faeriniel, Gen, Original Character(s), The greater good, the lethani
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-03
Updated: 2018-07-03
Packaged: 2019-06-01 13:57:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15144578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Teccams_Socks/pseuds/Teccams_Socks
Summary: What happens when the Greater Good goes against the Lethani?





	The Adem and the Amyr

Once, long ago and miles away, two travellers came to a place called Faeriniel. This was unusual, as Faeriniel was a great crossroads, and often many people would spend the night there. But tonight the sheltered clearings slept, empty and dark beneath a moonless sky.

The first traveller was a young woman. She wore blood-red clothes and carried a slender sword upon her hip. She had sandy hair and sharp grey eyes. She was one of the Adem, a mercenary.

The second traveller was a grave-faced man with a dark beard and darker eyes. He wore heavy, oiled armor that made only the softest chime when he moved. His shield bore a flaming tower, his hands tattoos like streaks of blood. He was a Ciridae, and perhaps this story will show you what that means.

At first, the travellers set up their camps in different clearings. They made their fires and sat with the darkness behind them. But the roads were bad in those days, and there is safety in numbers, even for an Adem and an Amyr. Before long, the smell of her roasting rabbit drew him to the edge of her clearing.

“May I join you?” the Amyr asked in his deep voice.

The Adem raised her head to watch him over the fire. She gestured him to sit across from her.

“Thank you,” he said.

They ate, letting the fire fill the air between them.

“What brought you from your corner of the world?” the Amyr asked.

The Adem tossed a rabbit bone into the fire. “Work.”

The Amyr nodded gravely. “I am here with the same purpose. My Order requires my assistance.”

She said nothing, for quiet is as important to the Adem as the ever-changing wind.

“You seem quite young,” the Amyr said. “Yet you wear the reds of your people’s warriors.”

“I am a warrior,” said the Adem. Her eyes grazed his bloody hands.

The Amyr smiled and waved a placating gesture. “I meant no offense.”

She touched eyes with him. “I was not offensed.”

“Offended.”

“What?”

“You speak my language very well, but—”

“The bird who knows the wind may fly swifter than she who does not,” the Adem said.

“Who said that?” he asked after a moment.

“Laethe, of the second stone.”

“He must be very wise.”

“I am.”

The Amyr stared into the flames. Though he knew the turnings of the world, he was a proud man. He felt that she was toying with him, and this made him angry.

“You live up to your people’s reputation,” he said.

The Adem shrugged.

“It is your Lethani that gives you such strength and wisdom, yes?” he asked.

“The Lethani is not for a barbarian to speak of.” There was no inflection in her voice, and yet he felt as though she had slapped him.

“Barbarian? I am a member of the highest order of civilization. I am Marien of the great city of Atur. My choices always protect the greater good.”

“You misunderstand,” said the Adem easily. “You cannot help being a barbarian. It is not a lesser thing.”

He felt it was, but he sighed. “It must be translation. Perhaps a better word is ‘foreigner.’”

The Adem shrugged, and the conversation died for a while as they collected themselves. Rabbit bones popped in the flames.

“What does your Order require you to do?” she asked.

“It is complicated.”

She raised a slender eyebrow, making an odd motion at her side.

“There are seeds of revolt in the Empire,” the Amyr sighed. “If peace is to continue, a woman in a nearby town must die.”

“What is her crime?”

“Some say she bears the child of a demon. She believes it is the child of God. Whichever is the truth, the situation is dangerous.”

“It is her child,” the Adem said. “What do you mean it is the child of a demon?”

“They say the child is ready to be born after only three months. That is not natural.”

The Adem still cocked her head as if confused. “Is she a demon?”

“Possibly. My heart tells me the child will bring death.”

“Will you kill it?”

“Yes. Before he is born.”

“And the mother?”

“Yes.”

The Adem’s face was still impassive, neutral, but her hand clenched at her side.

“How is this your greater good?”

“It is a complicated situation.”

“There is no complexity here. What you mean to do is wrong.”

“I do not expect you to understand,” said the Amyr. “Your people only emerge from your mountains when it suits you. You know nothing of maintaining the balance of this world.”

The Adem fidgeted, her eyes like a winter storm. “You mean to murder. Twice. For a crime that has not been done. I see no balance in that.”

“One in my position must anticipate the turnings of the world. If the common folk flock to this demon’s child, thousands may die in the chaos.”

“Thousands are already dying. What are you doing to stop that?”

“I do my work. Same as you. You are a warrior. Surely you have killed before.”

“Sometimes a man must die,” she said. “Sometimes he is too full of _Vaevin_ , and he poisons the world instead of loving it.”

“That is what this child will do. I will not wait and let him do it.”

“I did not know the Amyr had stepped into the shadow of the Oracle.”

“You are approaching my displeasure.”

“Then finally we have reached your heart,” the Adem said. “A man does not become angry at a challenge unless he can feel the ground beneath him shift.”

The Amyr glared at her, and her eyes reflected back on him.

“I am a Ciridae,” he said softly. “I am trusted by my Order. I have no need for your approval.”

The Adem made a broad gesture and placed a log on the sinking fire. Silence grew again in the clearing, the sharp silence of stubborn people ignoring each other.

“You know of my mission,” the Amyr said finally. “What is yours?”

The Adem stared at the fire for so long it seemed she would not answer him.

“There is an innocent woman in a nearby town,” she said at last. “A powerful man is coming to kill her. I will stop him.”

“You will stand against me?”

“I will stand with the Lethani.”

“How will you find her? I have not told you her name nor her town.”

“Everyone has heard the rumors. And you will not be hard to track.”

The Amyr laid his hand upon his sword hilt. “So we must fight?”

“No.” It was said with such emphasis, unusual in her calm voice. “We have just had dinner, and we share a fire. This is not the time to fight.”

“I cannot trust you.”

“So leave.”

He stood up. “I have learned much about your people tonight.”

“I did not learn anything I did not already know.”

His jaw clenched, but he bowed politely. He turned to leave the circle of her firelight. “Pleasant night.”

“Slow regards.”

He was swallowed by the forest’s shadow, his armor chiming in the night.

The next morning, after a fitful night’s sleep, the Amyr returned to the Adem’s clearing. He found no trace of her; not a warm coal in the fire-pit nor an impression of her bedroll in the dirt.

 

_This is not where their encounter ended,_

_And next day there was no conflict mended._

_For the two were heroes in their own right:_

_The Adem and the Amyr on a moonless Faerie night._

  

END

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi on tumblr: [ teccams-socks.tumblr.com ](teccams-socks.tumblr.com)


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